


Merry Christmas, Indeed

by MeganMoonlight



Category: due South
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff, Multi, Polyamory, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-30
Updated: 2014-12-30
Packaged: 2018-03-04 09:35:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3062870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeganMoonlight/pseuds/MeganMoonlight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray, Ray and Fraser's first Christmas together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Merry Christmas, Indeed

“Hey, Vecchio, I’m back!”

Ray closed the door with his foot, trying not to drop the two bags of groceries he had ended up buying. He put them on the kitchen counter and after he took off his jacket and boots he started unpacking.

Vecchio was not in the kitchen, so Ray assumed he probably went to the bathroom or something.

“I bought everything you’ve written down. They didn’t have your fancy olives though. When I asked about them the lady looked at me like I had two heads or something, so I just got the regular, green ones,” he said loudly and put the jar with olives next to the bowl with vegetables. “You’ll have to survive, I guess. Why do you need olives anyways?”

Only then Ray realized that Vecchio didn’t answer him at all. Well, that was weird. He left everything else unpacked and went to check what was going on. Apparently Vecchio was not in the bathroom. Instead Ray found him sitting on the bed in their bedroom.

The bedside lamp was turned off so the only light in the room came from the corridor. Vecchio was sitting there in silence, looking down at his hands. Anyone sitting alone in the dark is not a good thing.

“Hey, what’s up?” Ray asked.

When Vecchio did not answer Ray stepped inside the room and sat down next to him, so that their knees were barely touching. He noticed a bandage on Vecchio’s left index finger.

“What happened?”

Vecchio did not respond. Didn’t even react, as if he didn’t notice Ray entering the room. O-kay. He was just sitting there, looking at his hand. So Ray sat with him, not saying anything. Ray knew that it would be better than forcing the other man to talk. They’ve done this before. The sitting in silence thing. They would sit unless one of them, depending on who was moody at the moment, was ready to talk. It was their thing, something they learned after the first five months of their relationship. Because that’s what it was. Re-la-tion-ship.

Ray had no idea how long they sat there, but after a while Vecchio sighed and Ray could see him relaxing as he leaned against Ray’s shoulder a tiny bit. Small victories.

“It’s our first Christmas together,” he mumbled finally and Ray blinked. 

“No, it’s not. You spent Christmas with Fraser before.”

Vecchio only rolled his eyes at that, which Ray counted as a win. “I meant you, me and him. It’ll be the first time all three of us have time off and we can prepare everything together,” he said quietly. “I’m… I’m afraid I will mess it up. Ruin his holidays.”

“What do you mean? And it’s our holidays.”

“It’s hard to… after Vegas, after everything…” he sighed again and put his head in his hands. “I cut myself because I got lost in my thoughts. I was trying new recipes Benny found in one of those books he reads. He mentioned them, so I thought I’d make them for him. But then I got lost in thought because I remembered the holidays I missed because of Vegas and what I was doing then, and…”

“Hey, Vecchio. Hey, come on,” Ray interrupted him and put one hand on Vecchio’s shoulder and the other one on his bandaged hand, trying to reassure him.

Vecchio didn’t move away, so Ray moved the hand from Vecchio’s shoulder to his back and then gently placed it on the back of his head, squeezing gently. Vecchio was really worried about that. The question was, how long was he thinking about that? Ray had no idea, but he knew he had to take his mind off it.

“It’ll be fine, okay?” he said quietly. “You told me that when I freaked out over living together. Remember? I was so nervous that I almost dropped the ugly vase you got from your mom. You told me to relax. It’ll be fine,” Ray told him and only then Vecchio looked at him. “Fraser is just happy that we can spend Christmas together, all three of us and the wolf, you know. It’s not about the food or anything else.”

“I know that,” Vecchio sighed. “That’s Benny for you. I just don’t want to screw up his Christmas.”

“You won’t, okay? Say ‘okay’ or I’ll tell your mom that you’re not eating properly.”

Vecchio glanced at him, but muttered a quiet ‘okay’ and turned one hand to intertwine his fingers with Ray’s.

“Come on then. Back to the kitchen so you can tell me what you are making,” Ray got up and, still holding Vecchio’s hand, led them back to the kitchen. “Frase and Dief will be back soon. Do you need me to do something?”

“No, you stay away,” Vecchio said, taking a dishtowel from Ray’s hand, but before he did, his fingers brushed the back of Ray’s hand. “Just go and put the plates and the cutlery on the table. After your last time cooking I don’t think I’ll let you anywhere near the stove.”

Ray couldn’t help smiling. That was Vecchio. “Yeah, well, next time just tell me for how long should I keep the vegetables in the sauce or whatever,” he replied, as he took the plates from the cupboard. “Besides, didn’t you say you wanted to do stuff together? What happened to that?” Vecchio rolled his eyes at him, but there was a ghost of a his usual smirk on his face. Awesome.

“Yes, stuff that does not involve you in the kitchen. I don’t know about you, but I actually want to eat something this Christmas.”

They bickered about half an hour before the door opened. Ray entered the corridor and was ready to greet Fraser, but he blinked when a large white bag was shoved in his arms not too gently.

“Frannie?” he blinked in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

Frannie smiled and took of her coat and Fraser took it to hang it next to his. “I brought gifts. You didn’t think I would just skip you, did you?” she asked and after passing Ray she entered the kitchen. She put a heavily looking bag filled with white paper boxes next to the vegetables Vecchio took from the bag. “And here is food from mom.”

“Francesca was kind enough to bring gifts and…”

“And this!” she smiled brightly and took a few branches of mistletoe from her purse.

Ray blinked, still holding the bag with gifts, not knowing what to say. “Wait, you don’t plan to catch Fraser under the mistletoe or anything, right?” he asked suspiciously, to which Frannie rolled her eyes, but did not respond. Fraser, however, blushed and it was very hard for Ray to not kiss him right then. A blushing Fraser was hard to resist, but Ray managed. He deserved an award for that.

“You know, I thought that since for some reason you prefer to spend Christmas here you probably won’t be able to get your gifts, so I brought them. And mom says hi. She still doesn’t get why you don’t want to spend Christmas with us.”

Vecchio snorted at that. “Tell her we’ll be there in two days,” Vecchio said, taking the saucepan off the stove. “There will be enough people there even without us.”

“Francesca, would you want to take gifts for everyone with you or should we bring them when we visit?” Fraser changed the subject before Vecchio said anything else. 

The Vecchios were still touchy about this subject and it wasn’t only Mama Vecchio who did not understand Ray’s choice to spend holidays with Ray and Fraser. Vecchio met with her, explaining that he would visit, he just still needed some time to get used to spending time among large groups of people and that he, Ray and Fraser will be fine. She shook her head, but hugged him and told him to take care of himself and them. 

“I’ll take them, I think. The kids can’t wait,” Frannie said before disappearing in the living room with Fraser, leaving Ray and Vecchio in the kitchen.

“I can imagine,” Vecchio mumbled and got back to cooking.

“Would you like me to help you?” Fraser asked when Frannie was back, carrying gifts instead of the mistletoe. She must have put it somewhere in the living room. Ray would have to go and check.

“No, thank you. I want them to be a surprise and I’m pretty sure it won’t be if you go with me. They miss you, too, you know,” she added apologetically and Fraser smiled at her.

“Ah. Understood.”

“Okay, boys. I just wanted to wish you Merry Christmas,” she hugged Fraser first, then Ray, and then Vecchio moved from the stove to wrap his arms around her in a quick hug. She scratched Dief’s head before taking everything and heading to the door. Fraser went after her, insisting the he should accompany her at least to catch a cab, and Ray knew that it was the perfect moment to go put the gifts under the tree.

Making sure Fraser was gone and Vecchio wasn’t looking, Ray quickly went to the living room, found the two boxes he hid under his clothes and put them under their Christmas tree. There were more gifts under the tree than he expected and he couldn’t help grinning at the sight. They all looked pretty great. He really was tempted to snoop at what Vecchio and Fraser got him, but then he remembered how excited Fraser was when he talked about the holidays and the Christmas morning. Well, Ray could survive one more day. Maybe. Hopefully.

“Get out of there and don’t touch the presents!” Ray heard Vecchio yell and he rolled his eyes.

“Okay, okay. Stop yellin’. I wasn’t going to touch them.”

“Like hell you weren’t,” Vecchio replied when Ray entered the kitchen again and grabbed a cup of coffee Vecchio must have made for himself. He took a sip and put it back down, deliberately leaning against Vecchio, putting his hand on his waist for support. And just to touch him.

“Really, Kowalski? Now? Can’t you wait until I’m done cooking?” 

“Sure I can,” Ray smiled and snatched a piece of a tomato from the bowl. “Can _you_?”

Ray was supposed to also add that he wanted to help Vecchio relax, but the door opened right then and Fraser and Dief entered the apartment again.

“No, I don’t think so, Diefenbaker. I believe you should wait for presents just like everybody else,” Fraser said to the wolf before taking off his jacket and boots. Dief only whined and went to the living room.

“Antsy much?” Ray pointed at the wolf as he pecked Fraser on the mouth.

“A bit, yes. He really doesn’t like waiting. I may have admitted that he’ll get more than one present and he is rather impatient.”

Ray couldn’t help smiling. Dief definitely wasn’t the only one who couldn’t wait until the morning. At least he could understand the wolf. Ray felt impatient and excited himself. He already wanted to know what he'd gotten from his lovers, but also he wanted to see Vecchio and Frase’s reactions to the gifts he got for them. He smiled when Fraser went to help Ray set the table, smiling brightly at Vecchio when taking a plate with cheese and salad and second one with roasted potatoes. Vecchio kissed him on the lips before he got back to whatever else he had planned to put on their table.

When they were eating Ray glanced at Vecchio. His earlier bad mood seemed to be gone, as he talked to Fraser about the recipes he had tried. Ray only put some more potatoes on his plate, they were really awesome, and listened, smiling at them.

***

While Fraser woke up earlier to take Dief out, and Vecchio got up to prepare breakfast, Ray actually didn’t mind waking up early to help as well. When waiting for Vecchio to finish and Fraser and Dief to get back, Ray glanced at the presents under the tree and smiled again. He moved the mistletoe Frannie brought them and hung it above the couch. Perfect.

The whole morning was perfect, if Ray could say so. They all kept smiling and just sat down and talked, Dief got his own plate with food and it was… even better than Ray imagined, honestly. Vecchio’s earlier insecurities seemed to disappear as he first kissed Fraser then Ray, and then he finally let Ray bring the boxes from under the tree.

“Go and open them or you’ll burst or something,” he said, smirking, and Ray stuck his tongue out at him. Fraser smiled at them.

“We could drink cocoa while opening the presents,” he suggested and soon all three of them moved to the tree, holding their respective cups. Ray noticed how happy such a small thing as drinking cocoa made Fraser.

Ray handed everybody their presents and sat down on the floor next to the tree. Instead of opening presents he decided to watch his lovers’ reactions as they opened gifts from him.

Yeah, he had to take additional shifts to afford them, but seeing Fraser smiling when he saw a new winter jacket and the emotions on Vecchio’s face when he took out two tickets for the opera he had wanted to see but thought the tickets were all sold out, it was all worth it. Presents for him could wait. Fraser kissed him first, then so did Vecchio. After that Fraser and Vecchio shared a kiss as well, and Ray was smiling. It was perfect.

Merry Christmas, indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> I felt like writing something for the holidays. _Due South_ is a fandom that always makes me happy, so I wrote my second F/K/V fic. Those three are pretty much irresistible to me, so there's fluff. And a bit of angst and comfort. Enjoy!
> 
> Thanks for beta to **[lil-1337](http://lil-1337.livejournal.com/)**.
> 
> Also can be found **[*HERE*](http://megan-moonlight.livejournal.com/558423.html)**


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